The Rise and Fall of Wu Zetian
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 พ.ค. 2023
- So you think math is hard? Try summarizing the story of an eventful and passionate women in a 10 minutes video.... oh wait, we did!
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⟹ SOURCES USED:
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- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Zetian
- www.britannica.com/biography/...
- www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor...
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor...
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor...
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor...
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Historically is the third channel and project of Archmeton where he pairs up with skilled artists all around the world to create easy to understand and enjoyable historical videos about bizarre events.
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HISTORICALLY FUN FACT
If you're wondering what happened to Empress Wang and Xiao Shufei... It's too nasty to be included in the video,
Imprisoning inside the palace for the rest of their lives wasn't as nice as it might sound like. They both got locked up in a windowless room with only a hole to get food given through.
After Wu Zetian was made Empress of Gaozong, the emperor decided to pay them a visit. Seeing their conditions deeply saddened the Emperor, and after calling out "Empress!, Shufei! Where are you?" into the darkness, Empress Wang responded and begged; "If Your Imperial Majesty considered our past relationships and will allow us to again see the light of day, please rename this place 'Huixin Courtyard' ("the courtyard of a returned heart"). Gaozong being the dude he was, immediately responded with "I will do so right away". However, when our main character heard about this she was enraged and issued their death warrants.
Their exact punishment? Each of them got caned (hit with a stick) a hundred(!) times and got their hands and feet(!) cut off. After the first punishments Wu ordered the women to be put into large wine jars with the intention to "let these two witches be drunk to their bones". Both Wang and Shufei managed to survive this punishment for several days till they ultimately succumbed to the torturing. This might start to sound like Pope Stephen's story here, but after they died Wu ordered for both of them to be beheaded and afterwards had Empress Wang's clan surname (Wang) changed to Mang (Snake)
If this wrath surprises you, I don't blame you. Wu has ordered the deaths of many more in her tale, which we unfortunately couldn't fit in this video without it getting a really messy (and hard to follow) story!
Yeiks.
Even though I've heard torture like this in Chinese it still doesn't fail to surprise and scare me a bit. I'm just glad I was born in a decent place
This fact isn't fun....
Nasty
Much about her story sounds too farfetched. Almost like it is propaganda to make the new person in the throne look and sound legitimate. Too bad I have nothing to back that up.
An emperor died peacefully, without being poisoned or killed brutally by an ambitious general? That's an odd and unusual story I could hear in history
Well she was 65 when she claimed the tittle. She was just really old
He trying youth drug.
There were 4th choice who was Emperor favor son, but he was reject by court officers, as he also grandson of Sui Emperor..
Rome: Wait, that's Illegal!
Empress* :)
And then she became an assassin class servant in fgo as a kid.
And a caster as a adult with a swimsuit
Skadi for those who dont have skadi
@@rubyblooddemonking both are great indeed
Her being a child as an Assassin is due to the lengths that Wu did behind the scenes in the Chinese Court to ensure that her becoming the next heir to the throne was absolute. Consider that she was doing this at a very young age, it makes sense why her being summoned as an Assassin in her child state would be so. Her Caster version is her at a very young adolescent adult, while her Ruler version is when she was at her prime being the Empress of China.
There it is
So, she basically just girl bossed her way to the top and died peacefully. Truly inspiring.
How did she fall.
Old age she just kinda died
Huh
@@fatjellyfish9478 He didn't mention what happened after she died. The people in power basically tried to make it look like she never ruled, erasing her entire legacy (which he also didn't fully spell out because nobody's got time for trying to make a two hour video 😁) and vilifying her in manuscripts for centuries after.
Yeah lmao
immagine being such a girl boss bad bitch that for centureies people literally try to remove you from history.@@ms_scribbles
Considering how prone to murder she was (even for China at the time) I can’t exactly blame them. While they did vilify her much of the villainy was somewhat warranted.
Just want to add a few things :
By all accounts, Wu Zetian was a very successful leader : she was great at wielding the enormous Chinese bureaucracy for the good of the empire, after having pushed aside the historically powerful families occupying the higher positions to place competent low-born people in their place, who would be loyal to her for allowing their promotion. She was also particularly tactful when tackling religious issues, like the rise of Buddhism, and using religion as a way to cement her own power.
Right. The narrative was good for how she gained power through underhanded means, but they should have mentioned her good contributions too. The story telling was lighthearted but they kinda portrayed her here like the villian in her own story.
@@pipo9713he is American. Do u think he'll say good abt china?
Yep! Chinese historians who tried to slander her still couldn't deny her excellent leadership
@@badmashdogesh3939 Hearing from his accent, I think he is more Dutch than American haha
@@badmashdogesh3939 Poor attempt at political diversion. stop it.
Oh man, Chinese history is so rife with interesting stories, and Empress Wu is definitely up there in her infamy. So glad you branched into history too.
Romance of the 3 kingdom
I recommend Qin Shi Huang by Xiran Jay Zhao.
His story is full of childhood betrayals, blind assassins, sword masters, calamitous revenge, and one of the most unfortunate birth circumstances in the history of world leaders.
Like all history , trust me if you grew up like I did it was entirely indoctrination filled with racial superiority and to hate every foreigner
In an ironic/karmic twist, Wu Zetian's final years were marked by her male lovers scheming against each other, and ultimately against her, as her health failed and she was forced to delegate more and more of her power to subordinates, until she was finally forced to abdicate the throne back to one of her remaining sons, who promptly restored the name of the Dynasty to Tang. She spent the last few months of her life before dying of old age and illness effectively under house arrest in her palace.
the youtuber didn’t want to mention this because he wants the “girl boss” to look successful despite murdering children and others
@@GAM3RK1NG. The youtuber also didn't want to mention that Wu was a successful leader, particularly when it comes to giving opportunity to women and commoners as well as dealing with religious issues. It just in general paints her in a bad light and making her out to be the villain in her own stroy. This story doesn't give her any favors. And no, girl boss doesn't necessarly means murder and bloodshed. Other emperors, male or female, have done the same thing. She is not particularly special in that aspects.
@@miaz3839 if she’s evil she doesn’t get favors, if she murders a little child and exiles her family it is evil. you just want her to not be portrayed as a villain because she’s a “girl boss” lol
@@GAM3RK1NG. Most emperors are evil by those standards, yet people don't usually care. We praise Julius Caesar as a brilliant general and romanticize his story, even though he slaughtered and enslaved a million Gauls (in his own words, whether true or not). Why is it we care in this instance?
@@GAM3RK1NG. They made actual points as to why they consider her a successful leader, you failed to refute them and continued with your fallacies. It's clear who won that exchange.
The animation is so smooth, its really sad seeing this channel be really underrated, because the quality of the content is higher than more famous hystory channels.
Keep up the good work man.
Thank you! We will only become better and hopefully picked by the algorithm by then :)
I didn't notice till you pointed out. It is a great channel.
Bro wtf is china map 😅
It's a real shame that we don't know her birth name. Wu is her family name and Zetian is a title she chose meaning "Ruler of the Heavens"
Wu Zhao I think is one of her oldest.
I can't believe all this happend cuz Gaozong was just an innocent little mommy's boi
Gaozong used Wu mutiple times too
@@khongmaithikhog5624 gaozong never did anything
@@primas_marine he controlled Wu first. But he later shared the power due to his illness!
she gaslighted gatekeeped and girlbossed her way to the top and dipped peacefully. Dayum
I love this video man, Wu Zetian is one of the most interesting figures in Chinese history, and the way you covered the story is so entertaining, you guys have such a nice artstyle.. I can't believe you're working on so many high-quality channels at once, keep up the great work!
Seems like most Westerners - even history lovers like me - know very little about the history of anybody east of Mesopotamia. I know English and Roman history fairly well. The broad strokes, anyway (and the details of some periods/characters i find most fascinating).
But we western history buffs do at least know that the history of the China, Korea, and Japan is filled with crazy shit and fascinating stories. The formation of Chinese empires. The Mongolian takeover. The subjugation of Joseon and Korea, squished between the enormous Chinese empires of Han and Ming and the powerful Japanese.
I can't help but see the parallels with European history. The raiding japanese, feared seafaring warriors that raided costal areas and did some colonizing some raping and pillaging I presume. They seem not unlike the vikings of the 9th, 10th, and 11th century.
The development of many small kingdoms into a few large empires in China. That is like what happened in most of western europe. Especially the formation of england from its petty kingdoms mercia wessex essex kent northumbria etc.
I guess people just be people all thru history. We just fighting each other slowly consolidating into large nation states. Then the large nation states fight each other, just like happened in Mesopotamia.
@@burtan2000 So true man. Civ 6 really opened my eyes to how little I really know about history, even Asian history. There's so many interesting people and stories in our past, I would have never known about the Korean dynasties or Vietnam's struggle for independence against China. The Khmer literally strapped ballistas to elephants and rode them into war!
Chinese history never disappoints to be one of the most dramatic pieces of history
Zai getting the throne is basically "luigi wins by doing absolutely nothing"
the art and the storytelling complements each other great job arch
She is a playable servant (Assassin Class) in the game Fate / Grand Order with her noble phantasm /special attack animation involved dropping the opponent into a vat of wine to drown and poison them. As part of her lore, she is also afraid of cats and the game mascot Fou (which has a resemblance to a cat) due to being cursed to reincarnate as a mouse.
This video doesn't talk about her most evil part. Do you remember her two competitors, the empress and concubines? After Wu Zetian took power, she cut off the limbs of these two people and threw them into the wine and drowned them.
In fact, compared to other rulers, she is indeed full of creativity in killing people.
@@user-xm6qc7ew3p it might be false accusations framed by woman-haters 😮
I love the dichotomy of your channels Arch. I remember playing in a val tourney you hosted at around 15-20k subs on the archmeton channel! I am really impressed by how far you've come. Keep it up 🎉
We gotta do those val tourneys again in the future xD
@@HeyHistoricallythe shotgun tourney were our team lost was an experience a fun one for sure
I am astonished as to how your channel only has 3.5k subscribers. But since these are your first videos, I am very sure that you'll grow into a huge TH-camr someday. Good luck! Keep pumping this awesome history content.
funnily enough. Many of the commonfolk liked her and because of her being a nun after taizong died she built a number of buddhist shrines,so the people were like hey shes doing good so why take her down
Oh my god, what a wonderfully smooth and interesting video. You can tell the amount of effort from the animation and scripting, I hope you keep on growing because this channel is super underrated!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Both the animation and the narrator is Top Notch ! Keep up the good work !
Great video arch. Can't wait till the next one comes out
I don't really like learning about history because its pretty boring, but this actually had me engaged! The animation is very smooth and cute. Well done! You've got yourself a new subscriber👍
You haven't had a good teacher probably, history has some tales that you would think they come from a drama novel or some fantasy series and sadly some teachers reduce it to just dates and battles and take all the fun from it, I hope you find more channels like this and get the fun from history
The algorithm sent me here and I am so glad it did! Cannot wait to see what else you put out and watch your channel grow. The animation is wonderful and I love the art style.
Zhinu/Emperor Gaozong was benevolent... too "soft" and empathetic in fact.
Wu complimented his personality.
She reminds me of Jia Nanfeng as well. The woman responsible for causing the War of the Eight Princes of the short lived Sima-clan created Jin Dynasty.
Or Empress Lü, the scheming wife of the founder of the Han dynasty, Liu Bang.
Love this video and animation style. I really also enjoy your narration!
Thank you, expect more and better stuff in the future!
New vid!! Great content as always
Yo, this animated is top tier! Good job! And great video!
Wait so, Tai Zhung, (I think I spelt that right?) the father of the three boys, was he also poisoned by monks? I noticed the bottle next to his grave and was wondering.
OH WAIT HES THE SAME GUY FROM THE BEGINNING! that makes sense now ok
Speaking of Li Shimin aka Emperor Tang Taizong, he was that same emperor that have a fratricidal problem conspired by both of his brothers, the older brother Li Jiancheng and his younger brother Li Yuanji, causing the Xuanwu Gate Incident that ended both Jiancheng and Yuanji’s lives before Tang Taizong ever became the imperial Tang Crown Prince and later, emperor.
Zong**
太重*
You can't be a female emperor without being this much ruthless.
For a way longer and more in-depth story of Wu Zetian, check out Xiran Jay Zhao's two part video! They go into so much detail about her family, the court intrigues and so much truly awesome stuff
This video randomly appeared in my feed. All I can say is wow. Good story telling, great animation, and interesting topic. Looking forward to seeing more content.
Your animation is smooth, amazing and adorable. Noticed you only have two videos so far. Looking forward to more.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Empress Wu was an inspiration for the Character of Cerci in “ASOIAF” by George RR Martin.
Nah, Wu was actually smart
Help I love your art style! I’m definitely subscribing!
Dude, I enjoyed this video alot, your content reminds me of linfamy and another animated history channel, please keep it up 🙏.
just found this channel from community post, time to binge all the videos
Production quality is out of this world🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Love the animation. Really stands out compared to other channels.
Hey man this video was awesome! I love Chinese history but its extremely overwhelming to get into this video was not only educational but kept my little ADHD monkey brain in check, so great job and I hope you make more videos!
damn that was so good arch keep it up
That's some goooood storytelling. Nice one!
So she gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss-ed her way to the throne
China actually had several queens ane emperesses other than Emperess Wu, it's just that Wu is the only one who called herself 'Emperor'.
Nice little animation and documentary.
Their names Li, is supposed to be pronounced as Lee in mandarin, but I see you're using the Cantonese pronunciation.
Good job 👍👍
He is not doing Cantonese pronunciation, he is just pronouncing it wrong, it should be "Lee Zhi" not "Lai zee" and it should be "Lee Cheng chian" not "Lai Cheng kian"
Man! After watching this and Jack Rackam's video of this woman gave me more puzzle pieces to get the whole picture about her.
Lest goo a 10 min historically vid🔥
That's at least the official version... especially with governors this are twisted muddled and adapted every time, so it wouldn't surprise me if the facts were very different and no poisons were used.
Good video, and I would have loved to show it to my students. But I think it would have been massively improved by talking about the actual things she did as Emperor, since she presided over the height of the Tang dynasty, successfully annexed Korea, reduced corruption, and (in a miracle for a long ruling Chinese Emperor) saw no major rebellions during her reign. I think that reducing her to her ruthlessness in her rise to power (which was very real, don't get me wrong) plays a bit too much into stereotypes about female rulers and ignores the stuff she did that actually had an impact on the world.
Thanks for the feedback!
@@HeyHistorically thanks for the reply! Definitely gonna keep an eye on this channel for future vids :)
Each kingdom in the korean peninsula has been always "dual structure" of ppl of ruling class (chinese) and general public (koreans). these dualistic organizations .
All the ancient Korean kings 朝鮮王 of the past were Chinese officials. The queen was a Chinese nobleman. The members of the palace are all members of the Chinese nobles and the Han blood family 漢血家族(including various technical staff. Scholars, architects, monks, senior soldiers ...). They are all Chinese , Chinese language (Han dialect) , and Chinese characters. They have always been proud of the Chinese descent and the Han blood family 漢血家族. They call the ancient Korea 朝鮮 as part of China. These clearly recorded in a large number of letters written to the Chinese emperor and Chinese history .
Only the "White clothes Ethnic白衣民族" (the ancestors of Koreans today) slaves and civilians speak Korean language.
After the 15th century, Chinese officials (King of ancient Korean朝鮮王) invented a characters for indigenous and slave language - Korean characters. In order to better manage slave work.
Korea is an independent country established in 1950 (the United States has power in military power). Korean language and Korean characters as the official language and characters are less than 70 years. The real history of the real today Korean people (White clothes Ethnic白衣民族) is only about 100 years.
*
Ancient Korea before 1910 = 朝鮮 (the name of the Chinese city).
The official language :
Chinese language (Han dialect) and Chinese characters.
Korea after 1950 = 韓國
The official language :
Korean language and Korean characters.
----------------------------------------
More than 90% of the territory of the ancient Korean Peninsula 朝鮮半島 was Chinese territory. It was where the Chinese lived (a small number of them were local indigenous people who were slaves). Only the southernmost part of the peninsula was the "white-clothed ethnic 白衣民族" (ancestors of Koreans today)lived. Their language was Korean language. Until the Ming Dynasty emperor changed their name to "Chosun 朝鮮". During this period, the Korean peninsula was under unified administration.
"white-clothed ethnic 白衣民族" (ancestors of Koreans today) joined as civilians and slaves in ancient Korean peninsula. They were governed by local Chinese officials and families. Only Chinese could use Chinese characters 漢字and live in Chinese palaces. And "white-clothed ethnic 白衣民族" (the ancestors of Koreans today) are forbidden to use and learn Chinese characters 漢字(except for a few mixed-race people and those who work in the palace).
Therefore, during the Korean Peninsula War in history, the Chinese emperor would send troops to the Korean Peninsula to help fight against the invaders.
The animation is fricking amazing, it tells you on much on its own
Hey man, came here from your other gaming channel. Love the video, you are super talented as an educator, but I wish you had looked up the pronunciation of these names. Like I think lots of these names have audio pronunciation on Wikipedia.
Working on it!
That’s so cool!! Hope you can do one about Anne Boleyn
Obligatory plug to promote Xiran Jay Zhao's books Iron Widow and the upcoming sequel Heavenly Tyrant which are about Wu Zetian reimagined as a mecha pilot ala Darling in the Franxx and it is absolutely epic
Yess someone says it! Love that book
All of your channels are gonna explode. Mark my words!
applause to your effort arch 🥰
ur a goat bro all ur channels are fire as fuck and amazing production value for the size
Dude, the video Is sick! I Hope you Are gonna blow up soon:)
Amazing animations ! And a crazy story o-o
This has to be my favourite art style
subscribed. I hope you reach 1M subscribers in a year, you deserve it!
Li Zhi is so sweeet! Love your videos man! Keep it up!
I just discovered the channel holy shit! It’s nice!
I love these sound effects!
Keep up the good work man
Love from Sarah's brother
How did this dude manage to call Lee Zhi "Lai Zee"?¿
I love this animation style. Very witty naration too
Finally accualy good history channel similar to oversimplified, definably recommending to my history teacher, but a slight insignificant sugestion, as a history geography boy please make the borders accurate, but still a 10/10 content
saw this while doing a project abt china. instantly subscribed :)
Gives me flashbacks to when I had to memorize all the Chinese dynasties in WH.
I remember playing Civilization 5 as a kid and loving her because she was one of the only "beautiful woman of power" (I was biased as an asian) and to know this was her rise & fall is hilarious and respectful. She did what she had to do for a woman of her time, and to think it lasted that long - until her eventual death of age, is very commendable.
Come for the shotgun video game lore stay for the well animated history videos that's what my grandfather always told me
I like all the little sound effects.
cant wait for part 5
I think this channel will go far.
Imperial family of China (and imperial/royal families from many other civilizations in this aspect) was plagued by having to live by the palace rules, each member being separated into their own courts and thus drifting apart from each other and thus by blood related they might be, but they were effectively strangers competing for power to each other. Imagine how much trouble they could have avoided, if they lived like a "normal family", parents spending time with their kids, siblings playing with each other and so on.
The algorithm gods have sent me here and I found this amazing channel
Edit: Oh it makes sense now I watched his other channels.
0:00
This man sounded so Dutch, I felt my blood alcohol level immediately increase by 0.1% 😂🍻😂
And then she became a leader in civ 6
"all they end up achieving..." since that sentace I loved her
great Video!
My fav 武则天字 is 埊, it looks so cool and could with 100% certainity mean the entire All Under Heaven.
Totally subscribe your channel. Its really make me understand even more!!!!
The pronunciation is so jagged it's insane
2:24
The emperor's wives' doing JoJo poses in Ancient China. 🤣😂
this is a very cool video, and should receive more views
i lost the track of how many people got exiled in this video bruhh
For anyone interested in what the powerdynamics between the wives and concubines of these emperors would be like, I recommend "The Apothecary diaries". It is fictional, but for the average joe, it gives really interesting look into the whole "multiple wives" thing. It is a slow burner romance, detective story. Ah, and it also gives good insight into the red light districts of the time.
The animations are cute and engaging, while the narration is nicely paced
The pronunciations kill me.
Can you explain correct way to pronounce these? I am really interested
Bro is actively in the er
@deathracoffee
0:19 Wu Zetian "woo dzutt-yen"
1:45 Li Zhi "lee dzhhhhh"
2:29 Zhangsun "jahng-swun"
2:40 Li Chengqian "lee ch-hung-ts-yen
3:35 Li Tai "lee tie"
5:15 Gaozong "gout-zoong"
6:12 Xiao Shufei "showe shoe-fay"
8:22 Li Zhe "lee juh"
9:06 Zhou "joe"
@@ThelaretusXie Xie wode pengyou!
Emperor Wu is my iconic. She’s not badass like that even base on true story. She brought up new things in China such as central examination to promote a new wise blood to the government, nourish buddhist , raise feminine for chinese women and so on. BTW , I like your animation.
Gosh we were a peaceful, happy family back then, weren't we? All supportive and helpful. Plenty of teamwork, job security, human rights. Absolutely no reason to be paranoid. A very secure country to live in. No problems. Everyone's so safe. I'm sure everyone didn't have any problems sleeping. I'm sure anxiety wasn't a problem. I'm sure everyone was just so happy there. I'm sure whoever was in charge did everything in his or her power to make everyone feel safe. I'm sure all the children love their parents very much. I'm sure the parents love all their children equally and took great care of their mental health and physical health. I'm sure it's going to be the envy of the world. Obviously, it's a model country that everyone wants to aspire to be like. I'm sure the emperor would cope perfectly well with absolute power and would indulge in the lusts of the flesh, nor the lusts of the eyes, nor the vainglory of life. I'm sure the leaders were all role models in society that everyone can look up to and try to emulate. I'm sure everyone loves the Lord their God with all their hearts, with all their souls, with all their minds, and with all their strength, and I'm doubly sure that the entire population loved their neighbours as themselves.
Nope. Just people being people. Human nature being human nature. The ugliest inclinations towards insecurity, covetousness, ambition, and every evil thing, exposed to the full. Basically, just sinners being sinners. Human life being cheap. And people secretly happy at the demise of people who just happened to have something they wanted. Nasty.
Considering the Chinese Emperors' obsession with mercury to uncover the secret of immortality, I'm almost certain that at least some of them poisoned themselves to death, no ambitious prince necessary.
I didnt even watched the video and already subscribed.
Thats good!!! Thank you :)
"By The emperor himself" got some zombies flashbacks there
I love 900 to 905. I want it to be a looping clip
I loved the drama as a kid
We need more videos like these
Next week our next one!
@@HeyHistorically Can you do Henry II of England next and how he founded the Angevin Empire?
My mom once told me that a psychic apparently told her that she saw a vision of my mother having a past life as a powerful Chinese empress in ancient China. Wonder if this woman was her supposive past life, lol
Technically the empress' rule is not bad, she reformed the country's system to be more liberal towards women and gave them more rights (as at that era women is almost like a property and men can do whatever to their wives, concubine or daughters, like selling them or whatever, as long it does not go against Confucian values, or in western terms like the Christian values) and she also gave opportunity for women to work in the government if they are qualified through the national examinations (which is required for everyone to take to get a government position, whether you are a noble or commoner). The agrarian economy of the nation is also thriving under her rule; thus the farmers actually don't suffer in this era.
A lot of the bad reputations from historical records she got are from the high-born nobles whose interests are infringed by her reforms and her own son who succeeds her later and became a conservatist (albeit can be attributed to her bad parenting and the trauma he got from her) who pulled back all of her reforms (aka the women rights and women can get government positions things). You don't simply rule the entire China and die peaceful of old age if you are not competent. If a woman can survive and held power as emperor in an ultra-conservative ancient Chinese empire, she surely has to be really competent both at scheming and governing, because she won't survive otherwise. Cause just being good at scheming is not enough to keep your power as it will lead to peasant rebellion everywhere if your country is neglected, while if you suck at scheming in the royal palace someone will surely scheme at you. Cause in that era everyone is scheming for their own interests and the results are often deadly.
Additionally, those killings of children in the royal palace by the wives and concubines of the emperor is actually pretty common in the royal harem, it's just the matter of who is smarter and is more capable at out scheming each other to survive in the royal harem. Remember all of these ladies are descendants of nobilities, they all got their educations from their family (and told to get the favor of the emperor by their family) and is allowed to bring their own servants to the palace when they became concubines/wives, and they often can hire dozens of maids and servants to do their biddings. Usually, the higher ranked ones have more maids/servants too. So, the entire royal harem has its own extensive spy networks that were owned by the emperor's wives (cause the palace for royal harem usually as big as a small town to house and facilitate dozens of emperor's wives, hundreds or even thousands of servants, guards, secretaries etc).
Actually from the research I do make The royal examination are actually still male only even under her rule and the thing about woman get government job is mostly either through connections or favor from high ranking officer, or empress
Their main job for government is from Wikipedia secretary for high officials
In terms of actually governing the country effectively, Wu Zetian is certainly among the upper tiers of all Chinese Emperors and Empresses (those others that actually ran much of the country while controlling the official Emperor behind the scenes) in history.
she so cool and wonderful and deserved all and was even so beyond hardworking,, such cool knowledge! thank u!!